


Wagon Wheels and Pancake Races

by SoVeryAverageMe



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Developing Friendships, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Haikyuu Secret Santa 2018, Pokemon Pancake Race, Specifically Pokemon Sun & Moon, Unexpected friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 19:24:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17167895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoVeryAverageMe/pseuds/SoVeryAverageMe
Summary: It's the annual Pokemon Pancake Race. Watari and his Steenee are certainly not going to win, but they might just makes some new friends by the end of the day.(aka, a fic about friendship, Pokemon, and pancakes. So. Many. Pancakes.)





	Wagon Wheels and Pancake Races

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InuokaSoap](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InuokaSoap/gifts).



> Hi Chris - Happy Holidays and New Year! Thanks for giving such a great selection of characters and prompts (I absolutely love unexpected friendships!)
> 
> Originally, I was going to write a cute Pokemon Go fic where they meet playing in Tokyo, but I kept thinking of that one episode of the Sun & Moon anime where they have a pancake race. I kept thinking about it over and over and over again until I eventually caved and just had to write it.
> 
> I don't know a ton about Pokemon, so I was mostly going off of what little I've watched of the anime and Pokemon Go. (Many thanks to the Pokemon wiki for its assistance! For reference here's the [page](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Pancake_Race) on the Pokemon Pancake Race). 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Watari paused and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Steenee, careful to keep the plate of pancakes balanced in her hands, tilted her head to the side.

“Don’t worry about me, Steens.” He pulled out a water bottle and took a long sip. “This hill is just a little steeper than it looks.”

Steenee tittered and gave him an encouraging look. Watari smiled back at her. “We’re definitely going to finish! Maybe we’ll even catch up to Matsukawa and Hanamaki.”

He started pulling the wagon up the hill, continuing to talk to Steenee about the rest of his friends. Oikawa and Iwaizumi were probably way ahead (unless they accidently dropped their pancakes because they were bickering… again).

Finally cresting the hill, he looked down to see a few competitors. There were several dots out in the distance of those that were way ahead.

Closer to him, at the bottom of the hill, Nishinoya was pulling his Phanpy backward, using his body weight to help propel the wagon forward. He waved at Watari and poked Tanaka, who also waved, along with his Pancham.

“See Steens, we’re not that far behind,” he said, waving at the two boys. Steenee made a noise of agreement. “Make sure to keep a tight hold on the plate.” Watari spun the wagon around so he was behind it and let gravity pull them down the hill.

He used his weight to control their descent, keeping an eye on his feet to make sure that he wasn’t going trip over any potholes or stray rocks. Traversing the steep hill took his entire concentration.

Steenee chirped at him about halfway down. “Are you okay? Do you need me to stop so you can rebalance the pancakes?” he asked, looking up at her. She was looking ahead on the road and let out another worried chirp. Watari looked, squinting into the distance to try to figure out what she was trying to tell him.

Several meters beyond the bottom of the hill a wagon wheel was strewn on the side of the path. Steenee gestured at the wheel again. “Let’s get down this hill and we’ll go check it out.”

He continued to carefully pull the wagon downhill, until they were safely at the bottom. Watari picked up the wagon wheel and placed it next to Steenee. Inspecting the road closely, he found a couple of nuts and bolts that he placed in his pocket.

“I wonder what happened, Steens?” Watari didn’t see anymore pieces strewn about or any other competitors that he could ask.  

Steenee made an excited sound and nodded her head toward the left side of the road. Watari could see some of the bushes had been trampled and walked over to investigate, pulling the wagon behind him.

“Hello?” He carefully dragged the wagon off the path. “Is anyone there?”

He heard the rustling of branches toward his right and started heading toward the sound. Once past the initial row of bushes, there was enough room to navigate the wagon through the undergrowth.

The trees opened up to a small clearing where he found a tall boy wearing a red jacket sitting on a log. Next to him was a Rockruff sitting in an identical wagon to his, a plate of pancakes perched on his back.

The Rockruff barked, causing the boy to look up. “What’s wrong RuffRuff—” He trailed off when he caught sight of Watari. “Hi! Who are you?”

“Watari.” He said, giving a small wave. “And this is Steens. We just came looking because we found a wheel on the side of the road.”

“Thanks for checking up on us. I’m Inuoka and this is RuffRuff.” He stuck his hand out for a handshake.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around.” Watari said, thinking that he would have at least heard about someone new moving to town from Oikawa’s love of gossip.  

“Probably not.” Inuoka smiled. “I’m actually visiting from Kanto. My friends and I traveled here to participate in the race.”

The two fell into an awkward silence. “Your Rockruff seems sweet,” Watari said, scratching the back of his head. “Both of my friends had one before they evolved into Lycanroc’s, but they were always fighting with each other.”

“Your friends or the Rockruffs?” Inuoka asked, smile on his face.

“Both.” Watari snorted. “Although it bordered on flirting most of the time.”

“Your friends or the Rockruffs?” Inuoka asked again, laughing.

Watari sat down next to him, the laughing contagious. “You don’t want to know.”

“That reminds me a lot aof my friends’ Rowlet and Litten.” Inuoka shook his head. “They’re the reason we came all the way to Alola. They heard about the Pancake race and just _had_ to go.”

“And you just went along with it?”

“They can be very persuasive.” Inuoka reached over and absentmindedly pet Rockruff’s head. “I’m pretty sure they convinced enough people to come here to field two whole sports teams.”

“I know the feeling,” Watari commiserated. “It was one my friends that convinced me to join. He said it would help us all bond and then immediately abandoned us to try to win the race.”

“I heard it was supposed to be a tough competition this year.”

“The race really went up in popularity, so there’s a lot of new competitors. Plus, most of the top finishers from last year also returned.” Watari shrugged, “I wasn’t really in it to win. Just to hang out with Steens.” He turned his attention back to the broken wagon. “How’d you end up here anyways?”

Inuoka blushed. “Ah... I—” he trailed off. “I sort of thought it would be fun to get into the wagon with RuffRuff and ride it down the hill. It was fun… for a few seconds before I lost control.”

Watari couldn’t help but giggle because of the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. “At least no one got hurt, and Rockruff managed to hang on to the plate of pancakes.”

“My pride is pretty hurt,” Inuoka pouted. “All of my friends are going to make fun of me for dropping out the race this way.”

“Since you didn’t drop the pancakes, you technically still haven’t been disqualified.” Watari shrugged. “You can still finish the race if you and Rockruff are up to it.”

“I’m sure that RuffRuff could handle the third stage, but I’d still need to make it to the checkpoint with a broken wagon.”

Steenee held up the wheel that they had found earlier, while Watari dug out the nuts and bolts from his pockets. “It looks like it was just a wheel that came loose and nothing actually broke. I think that we found most of the parts.”

Inuoka’s eyes lit up. “We can fix it?”

“We don’t have a wrench, so we’ll just have to use our hands, but we should be able to get it mostly working.” Inuoka hugged him, before reaching to take the wheel from Steenee.

The two of them worked together to do the repairs. They were missing one bolt, but the wagon worked well enough without it. Dragging their Pokemon through the underbrush, they made their way back to the path.

The two of them pulled their wagons along and talked like they were old friends for the entire rest of the way. Every so often they had to stop and tighten the wheel on Inuoka’s wagon, but, together, they eventually made it to start of the final stage.

They cheered on Steenee and Rockruff until they disappeared in the distance, before they began to walk back toward the town.

“Do you want to grab some food with my friends and me after the race?” Watari asked. “You can invite all your friends along too.”

“That be great!” Inuoka laughed. “Since you’re locals, you probably know better places to eat than us.”  

“Great.” Watari laughed. “My friend offered to buy ramen for all of us and all of our friends if we participated in the race.”

Inuoka patted him on the shoulder. “Now you’re talking my language. My friends are never the type to turn down free food.”

“It sounds like our friends are going to get along great.”

And, so they did and a new tradition was started.

(It was also the beginning of the most competitive era in Pokemon Pancake Race history.)

**Author's Note:**

> I was really tempted to make Lev a Litten, but it never fit smoothly into the fic. 
> 
> There's some blink and you miss it references to Yahaba and Kyoutani having Lycanrocs that have evolved into different forms, and also to Kuroo and Bokuto having a Litten and Rowlet (because cats and owls). 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
